Abilities

20% damage may not seem too much but trust me, you wanna\' do as much damage as you can. You ALWAYS wanna try and stab them in the back whenever possible. Late game, you will have so much damage that 20% of it is just too significant to ignore. A great passive of Shaco that\'ll let the Crit damage you deal have the enemies yell out,\"OMFG, PLEASE NERF SHACO AGAIN!!!!\" Or \"LMAO, Shaco just Crit Damaged half of Morgana\'s Health\"

1) Map Awareness - Whenever I have the Golem Buff, I\'m usually pushing. Spam these boxes where most champions like to come from.

2) Ganking - place one of these boxes behind the enemy but make sure the enemy\'s creepwave has passed, and go ahead and start your damage on them. When they start to run away, they will hit these boxes adding precious seconds for you to kill them off

3) Grabbing Buffs - Stack these on top of each other (need maybe 3-4) and you can easily kill Lizard or Golem

4) Cutting off possible escape Routes when enemies are running away

5) Following up in teamfights; Dump one of these behind or in the middle of them. It may not seem much but they are feared for a good second. Every second counts in teamfights

6) RUNNING AWAY!!! When you run away, place these behind or in front of you. Numerous times have I had people chase me when I only had mana for just one JiTB. As you\'re running away, find a bush and plant one of these bad boys in there. You\'ll be amazed on what that second of fear can do to your aid as they frustratingly give up looking for you. Honestly, some people will just give up chase when they hit one.

We\'re gunna\' max this first. And the passive on this is just amazing, almost like having the Lizard buff without the added proc damage. The main reason we max this first is because of its damage and it\'s slow.

Before, I have tried maxing Decieve out first but didn\'t get as many kills as I have had when maxing Two-Shiv Poison. Max this one first.

Time and time again I have seen people use this Ult the worst way possible...manually running their Twin into the enemy without any added support nor reason but to think that they are \"clever\" or do damage when he explodes. This may work in lower ELO\'s but in higher ELO\'s, the enemy will KNOW it\'s a fake. Please do not send your lesser Twin in a suicide run like this, he deserves better than that... *Face Palm* =(

Soon-To-Come / Guide Logs and Updates

Soon-To-Come

- Will be adding various commentary videos of my Shaco Gameplay in the near future, covering different aspects of this guide, as well as some tips and tricks overall. =]
* Quick Jungle Tutorial (Done)
* Soloing Nashor at Level 14
*
-Will run through this guide and highlight the important texts in yellow or red. (or pink because most girls like pink =p)

Topics to cover:

-Blue Golem Route VS Red Lizard Route
-Why Sheen should not be on a AD Shaco.

Updates

Patch 1.0.0.103 October 19, 2010

Shaco

* Jack in the Box cast range reduced to 400 from 500
* Jack in the Box can no longer be cast inside walls

Introduction

WARNING:

This build is not for the cowardly-hearted, nor for those who give up too easily. This build is not for those who wish to play passively or for those who cannot understand the fundamentals of being a team player. This build does, however, offer to your teammates an outstanding array of fire-power, map awareness, and confidence that your team needs to achieve victory.

-Preface-

-7K Career Kills
-1.1K Turrets Destroyed
-As of May 21, 2010, Most Shaco Wins in League of Legends
-As of June 8, 2010, Over 750 Games played As Shaco

Best Record in one game: 39-1-2 with 7 turrets destroyed in less then 26 minutes

I was fortunate enough to take the last screenshot of my Shaco's history before Season 1 started. YES!! =]

Shaco is very difficult to learn when you are first starting off. This build will not guarantee automatic success because you will need lots of practice to play Shaco to his fullest potential.

I will teach you how to build him, how to use his abilities effectively, and most importantly, CARRY YOUR TEAM!!

Skilling Order

Only need 1 rank in Decieve early game,

Priority:
-Hallucination
-Shiv
-Deceive
-Jack in the Box

Jungling/Ganking + Items

As Shaco, you absolutely NEED to jungle. That is why we have first level as JiTB. If you cannot take the Jungle because you have another jungler, it may not be worth it to pick Shaco. Shaco is at his complete prime when he is MiA during the early stages of the game (Missing in Action). I stress this because you want to make sure you always keep your enemies paranoid of your presence. The psychological factor will kick-in and I will discuss this later on in this guide.

Compared to Warwick and Udyr, he may not be as good as them in terms of jungling, but he can certainly hold his own. You will literally spend most of your early/mid game here in the jungle.

With Jungling Shaco ready to go, our first items will always be Cloth Armor and Health Potions +5
Head straight to your golem and start placing JiTB directly behind where the golem would spawn. In higher ELO\'s, you will want to ping or ask your teammates to help cover you while you take golem uncontested. A competent enemy team will know you are jungling, and will try to mess you up.
Once you\'re done with golem, continue successively around your jungling base, attack each camp in direct order. Once you\'ve taken out Lizard, look for potential enemies to gank for first blood (hopefully that hasn\'t happened already).

-Ganking is the process in which an individual or group of characters gang up on one or more players that do not have a chance to defend themselves.
Enemies with less than half health or enemies that have overextended make prime examples of gankable enemies. They are pretty much just begging to be ganked.

If you were lucky enough to score blood, you should jungle more neutrals until you\'ve reached 1,100 Gold. Blue-Pill back and grab yourself [item_icon=Madred\'s Razors] 700 Gold, 350 Gold, and health potions. Madred\'s Razor is your main item in everyEARLYpart of every single game. It makes jungling easier and faster, along with faster creep killing when laning, can be built into [item=Madred\'s Bloodrazor], or later sold to make room for damaging items (EX: Infinity Edge). From here on out, based on the enemy composition, you will branch out your items to fit the best situation against their team.

My Jungling Process

Finally, the process in which many of you have waited for has arrived! I have experimented with Shaco\'s jungling more than I can remember. With tons of trial-and-error, embarrassing deaths to minions, and well...more embarrassing deaths to minions, I have finally found a jungling process that works best for me and hopefully, everyone else that uses this. This is the route I take that allows jungling to be swift and easy, while utilizing time to its fullest potential. Afterall, less time in the jungle = faster ganks.
This is my Jungling Process.

When you start any game, you will be placed in either 1 of 2 teams,
Purple or Blue. Shaco\'s jungling doesn\'t differ much from either side.

I divided the map to show the jungle creeps of both purple and blue.
The numbers are the EXACT order in which I proceed through the jungle.

First, you want to head to the Golem Camp (1). Place 4-5 JiTB right behind to where the Golem would spawn. When the Golem spawns, auto-attack and place another JiTB right next to it the Golem and you will kill the golem usually without smiting it. Once you cleared the Golem Camp, you will level up and put 1 rank in Two-Shiv. Continue forth to the Neutral Camp next to the Golem (2) and use your smite there. Smite one of the tiny golems or the biggest wolf and you\'ll finish that camp in usually less than 10 seconds. Head towards the Wraiths (3), place 1 JiTB behind the purple wraith, auto-attack, two-shiv, and kill that camp. You will Level Up and put 1 rank in Decieve. From here, you have 2 Options:
1) Counter-Jungle; Head towards the enemy\'s Lizard and see if you can smite/kill their jungler.
2) Continue Jungling in your Jungle

Counter-Jungling will be explained in greater detail further down the guide.

You decide to continue jungling as they do not have a jungler on the opposing team. Head passed the Lizard camp towards the Neutral Camp (4) and kill the creeps there. Your smite should be off cooldown so you will use it at that Neutral Camp. Once you cleared that camp, go back to Lizard and begin placing 4-5 JiTB just out of range to where the JiTB will not FEAR the Lizard. The point here is you will guide the Lizard into the JiTB by auto-attacking it and the JiTB will get tripped by the Lizard. Placing these JiTB will give you just enough time for your smite to be off cooldown. Once your JiTB Nest is set up, BAIT the lizard to the nest, drop another JiTB behind lizard and smite. Usually, you will have enough mana to Decieve and Two-Shiv an enemy.

Here you NEED to gank a lane, preferably the side lane closest to you. Locate an enemy that is gankable and go score blood. More often than not, you will find that you cannot gank either mid or side lane because the enemy is tower hugging to closely, or they full-up in hp. This is completely fine, go back home and buy your [item_icon=Madred\'s Razors] Razors.

It should be around the 7:00 min mark and that is just perfect since Golem should be respawning by now. Head back to Golem and repeat this process until you have farmed enough for a Recurve Bow. Remember to ALWAYS be on the lookout for an enemy to kill, even if it means interrupting your golem/lizard camp to score blood.

Now that you have your Recurve Bow, head to the Dragon and kill \'em.
You should be set now for your early game phase.
Continuing ganking, helping teammates push towers, or jungling further to maximize the Pysch Factor.

Important: You need to have your %5 extra Experience Bonus in the Utility of your Masteries MAXED. If you do not do this, it will make jungling a lot harder for Shaco, as he will not level up at the times in which I\'ve stated.

The Pysch Factor

\"If we wish to fight, the enemy can be forced to an engagement even though he be sheltered behind a high rampart and a deep ditch. All we need do is attack some other place that he will be obliged to relieve. If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way.\"
- Sun Tzu

There is nothing more intimidating...nothing more scary in a game then having someone lurking in the forest capable of striking at any moment. You are playing Ashe. You decide to lane with a buddy top while Twisted Fate soloes mid. You realize that Shaco is jungling so you are against only enemy Kayle in top lane. 2v1 is extremely easy! 7 minutes into the game, Kayle has brought your teammate Nunu down to 1/4 Health after he failed to tower dive. He begins to recall by your turret typing in All Chat,\"LOL KAYLE YOU HORNY **** SO LUCKY LLOL!! ONE MORE HIT AND QQWWWEEEQWWEEWwWWqq\" Nunu dropped dead in an instance. The sound of First Blood stimulates your mind while you\'re hoping that it was your teammate that had scored First Blood but no, you are sadly mistaken. You look at Nunu\'s last known location while Shaco runs back into the brush as his Orange Puff of Smoke mocks you with his evil, devious laughter. He is gone now...disappeared into the darkness. Yup, there lies Nunu, in all his All Chat Glory.

Paranoia. It can be so overwhelming at times, you are frozen in fear as to not push your lanes and not be as aggressive as you planned on becoming. You are frustrated that Kayle is farming the hell out of top, last hitting every living creep that you have while you and Nunu play chicken, tower hugging like newbies. Kayle now has an amazing early start because you and your friend Nunu, could not Deny him any experience nor Gold. Not only that but Shaco just helped kill your other teammates that were laning bot and are now pushing that turret down to crumbles.

You are feeling helpless, demoralized, angry, and are 10 seconds away from raging to your teammates to \"/uninstall you BADDIES!! FREAKING LEARN HOW TO PLAY\" You are being counter-productive now... Instead of helping your teammates achieve victory, you are spreading your horrible, poisonous attitude and making a bad situation worse. Now, your whole team is arguing whether or not who are \"teh n0obs\" and chaos ensues.

This is the Pysch Factor. You are literally having the opposing team kill themselves from within their very own minds. Destroy their will to play and you have destroyed their will to win.

Standard Shaco Build

[builder=Shaco/b5acb7e0a472570f74504437bb5d8c60]

This build is my standard build I get when their team comp is pretty balanced.
EX: 1 Tank, 2 Mages, 1 Carry, 1 Support. Their team isn't heavy on either AP or AD.
Yes, you will SELL your Madred's Razor in place for Infinity Edge later in the game when you take this build.

Total Cost: 10,230

Turret Destroyer

[builder=Shaco/b892f921fc2756bd08b302d57b11b089]

Do this build ONLY if your team doesn't have any pushing power.
This offers no survivability, only killing towers and pushing the heck out of lanes.
Make sure to buy plenty of wards and get ready to hear some nasty comments from teammates =p

*Tested* Can take out a Full Health Turret, while under Aggro, in less then 10 seconds. (With Clone of course)

Total Cost: 9,705

Armor-Up

[builder=Shaco/12d9baab09614343f68fa41913e97219]

They have too much Attack Damage? Well, let's make them wish they had some AP Toons amirite? Grab 2 Sunfire Capes mid-phase and you're solid. Finish this build and you're set for the game.

Total Cost: 10,935

Caster Killer

[builder=Shaco/909a31e868d0bfb3a1b0131f0367ee1a]

This build is for when they have TONS of AP, Burst Potential, CC, and Magic Damage. Team comps like this includes Annie, Vieger, Karthus, Kassadin, and Garen (Stacking Sunfire capes). In this team comp, your primary objective is to kill their squishiest champ OR their fed carry. Do you see Vieger chillin' in the back sippin' a Margarita? Freakin' rush that scrub and spill that crap all of 'em >=[ DIE VIEGER!!

Your only damage will be coming from IE though, the rest is for health and MR to survive those crazy, AP filled AoE Team Skirmishes.

Total Cost: 12,466

Tanker Down

[builder=Shaco/56d9c1c6a1b0369fcf1f28126bbf4f4f]

A Team with 3+ Tanks. These guys can be tough to take down if they are well coordinated. If you do not focus one target, they will eventually roll your team over just because they are so freakin' Tanky.
Rush Madred's ASAP, and grab some survivability while you're at it.

Total Cost: 12,615

Masteries + Runes

My masteries consist of going 21-0-9, the Offensive Route.

It is mandatory that you put in 4 ranks of Awareness (Grants your champion a total of 5% Extra Experience points) in the Utility Tree, as shown above. Without doing so will result in a harder jungling phase, because it will take you longer to level up. You've died to minions, haven't you? Remember how badly the other team laughed?

It\'s really all up to you how you want to set his remaining runes.
If you like to have a full rune page of a certain area, it is completely fine so long as you never build a page of any Critical Damage Runes.

I took out Dodge in Yellow because I have found that Flat Armor makes it plenty easier to jungle.
With these runes, I have +29 Armor Pen at level one...The average Armor for Champions is 34, if I remember correctly. When you crit someone at level one, you almost crit them purely for your attack damage...almost half the health of some squishier champions. Amazing stuff

Summoner Abilities

The right Summoner Spells are important for Shaco. With his free flash, Deceive, there is almost no need for an \"escape\" spell.

I ALWAYS run:

Smite

And

Ghost

Since you should never be laning, I take Smite. Then, I have Ghost to chase-down scrubs and get to places quicker. Ignite is probably my favorite Summoner Spell but in terms of Shaco, you don't that extra offensive power.

Spells that are Completely Viable: Ignite Smite Exhaust Ghost

Spells that are decent: Flash Cleanse Teleport

Spells you should never use for Shaco: Clairvoyance
[spell_icon=Fortify] Fortify Revive
[spell_icon=Rally] Rally Heal

Counter-Jungling and Map Awareness

This section is so important that I needed to make a whole different topic about it.

Counter-Jungling simply put is when you disrupt/ruin the jungling of the the other team\'s jungler. You do this by...well...killing them. One of the easiest ways to counter a jungler is through the uses of Sight Wards. Early in the beginning, a good indication of where your enemy jungler may be is correspondent on your current location.

Once you have finished with Wraiths, notice you will become level 3. Level up 1 rank in Decieve, Decieve passed behind the wraiths camp, pop and head towards THEIR Lizard. The image above shows that if you are at the wraiths, they will be at THEIR wraiths. The small black arrow indicates your progression through heading that way, make sure to avoid sight of middle so they cannot see you coming in that direction. Wait around the brush by the lizard where you have complete sight of the lizard but are still invisible because of brush. If you get there, you will notice 3 things:

1) The Lizard Buff is gone
-Their Jungler started with Lizard buff first, go ahead and continue Jungling, not much to do here

2) The Lizard Buff is still there
-The enemy is coming soon, could be just below finishing up wraiths. Be patient until they come.

3) THEIR JUNGLER IS THERE!!
-You\'re should be off cooldown. Here, you can either score blood and smite, or smite liz first, then score blood. Be creative here, remember you have so blockade 1 of his 2 possible escape routes before engaging.

This is a very dirty trick I have not seen anyone do yet here in League of Legends. You are essentially making a great gamble by doing this because the time you have spent over there looking for them, you could have used that time gaining more exp and gold in you\'re own Jungle. But then again, I don\'t head over there every single game I need to counter-jungle. Here are 2 amazing tips for you to help you decide whether or not you should do this dirty trick.

Counter-Jungling Tip #1

F.o.W or commonly known as Fog of War. Fog of War is being able to hear the enemy on the map without direct line of sight. Characters like Shen and Udyr give off a very distinct sound when they jungle and therefore, gives you their EXACT location. Use this to you\'re advantage and when you are jungling, look in their jungle and see if you can hear that sound.

Counter-Jungling Tip #2

Enemy Creep Kills. Yes, you can actually use this to you\'re advantage as well. Bring up the current game summary by pressing \"Tab\" button on your keyboard (or laptop, I use a laptop) and look for their jungler. Does he have 4 Creep kills then 5? Did he have 7 Creep Kills and after 30 seconds, it still at 7? The longer it takes for them to get the next creep kill is a remarkable indication he is doing one of the buffs or recalling. If he\'s killing plenty in a row, look for the lesser known creeps in his jungle to find his position.

I use both of these tips to screw their Jungler up.

Whenever you decide you need to port to base, if you can, ALWAYS pick up Health Pots and 1 or 2 Sight Wards. Potions and Sight Wards will never go out of style. The most important spot to ward is Dragon. Place one by dragon and continue jungling.

By the 7:00 min Mark, both golems should be respawning by now. You can either ward their Golem and steal it, or play it safe and take your golem. But this guide is focusing on Counter-Jungling so we will steal their Golem. Start setting up your JiTB behind their golem but be extra careful about him coming. You should have Madred\'s Razors by now, 3 good JiTB, a couple auto-attacks, and smite will usually be all you need to steal their golem.

\"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.\"
- Napoleon Bonaparte

This is an example of Counter-Jungling. The mistake Yi made here is that he is oblivious of your presence and also, Yi has already used his smite!! You have your smite and you\'ll take his buff without him knowing until its too late. You might not net the kill you wanted but you took his buff he needs to jungle with.

Remember this important tip: Always leave behind atleast ONE of their neutral creeps when taking their buffs. Not many people know this but if you decide to take Lizard/Golem camp but leave behind 1 of their neutrals, their buff will not spawn again. In order for it to spawn, you will need to kill every living creep in that camp. With that said, leaving behind a neutral creep ensures that they cannot take that golem again until they kill that last remaining creep. This will completely aggrevate enemy Yi; He needs to wait an extra 6 Minutes for HIS golem to spawn again. =D

Farming

The Cardinal Rule for Farming

Last hit Everything!

Various Tips and Tricks

1) Shaco\'s Ult acts like Flash in that you can dodge particles in Mid-Flight

2) Shaco\'s Lesser Twin carries everything you have

3) You\'re Deceive can go past walls and obstacles

4) When being chased by the enemy, pretend you will deceive a certain way, but in fact, deceive passed behind them and hide in a brush. You can safely teleport home after.

5) You can smite through walls so long as you have vision of the target Buffs. (Another reason why wards are important)

Pros / Cons

Pros
-Invaluable map awareness
-Great at \"Psyching\" the enemy team; Keeps them paranoid and less likely to be aggressive
-Will win almost any 1v1 Fight
-Versatile and if used correctly, should NEVER die
-Pushes towers faster than any other champ

Cons
-Squishy...very squishy
-Weak against a team composition consisting of mostly AoE Damage
-If you\'re team is doing bad, you will most likely be blamed for it
-In the hands of a Great Shaco, people will always call him OP...(incoming nerfs)

Item Summary

Did you skip to here? That's fine, just understand that you have missed some very valuable information back up there on how to play Shaco Effectively. Here's the Summary of my various Builds:

* The reason why I believe Boots of Mobility is needed in every game is because it allows for faster movement.
Faster movement = Faster Ganks

(If Time Allows) = Finish everything in that build first before building any of these items.

Video Vault

MORE TO COME!!! =]

Guide Summary

-Shaco is squishy and he excels in early/middle game but lacks in late game. End the game as soon as possible

-Always be on the lookout for a gankable target. Get them to be paranoid of your absence early on.

-Try and memorize the enemy team Summoner Spells to know what you\'ll be up against when ganking. ALWAYS!!

-Never initiate, stay back and wait for a perfect chance to come and fight. Best time is when they have exhausted most of their CC on fellow teammates, their Ultimates are depleted, the majority of them are half health, or when team member Fiddles Ults in between all of them.

-Always push towers when you have a free lane and your teammates are holding their own

-It gets harder playing Shaco in high competitive scenarios. Whenever you are on a downward slide, take a break and pwn scrubs another day.

-Control the map. Buy wards and ask your teammates to do the same.

-Never call "GG" before the game even starts...please, you're not helping your team to victory by doing this.

-Remember this, Your job in any teamfight is to kill their squishest champ or their carry.

*Note*

I'm only writing this guide to help you guys out.
Please rate and lemme' know your successes =]

Hope you Enjoyed my very first guide =]
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free
to drop me a message either here or in the LoL Forums. Thankyou
for the comments and I will consider all questions in due time.